content management | web strategy

Have a read of this article: The robot that can pull faces just like a human being

Jules is a robot that can mimic human expressions while talking. If you watch the video in the article, you’ll see that he has just the right subtlety of puppet jerkiness so as not to be completely repulsive. But it’s probably only a matter of time before he hits the floor of the uncanny valley.

I give total props to the scientists working on Jules - it’s nothing short of amazing. But will it be even scarier if Jules climbs out of the valley and becomes indistinguishable from a human?

I just made my first microloan to Mrs. Sorn Mon, who lives with her husband and five children near Phnom Penh. She mainly sells fish for a living, but would like to buy cows and piglets to expand her business.

When I first heard about Kiva.org I loved the idea, and I’ve been meaning to start lending for a while now. Kiva fights poverty by enabling entrepreneurs owners to grow their businesses with the help of microloans. It’s part of a phenomenon called microfinance, which gained fantastic traction with Muhammad Yunus’ Grameen Bank, for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize. (Microfinance is not without criticism of course - start here to get a fuller story)

I encourage you to peruse kiva.org and at least acquaint yourself with the idea. It’s a real, tangible way to help small business owners achieve success and self-sustenance. You can help support Mrs. Mon (see below) or select a business of your choice.

My friend Mark sent me this video, one of the keynotes from Future Of Web Apps Expo 2008. The speaker is Tim Bray, cofounder of OpenText and currently Director of Web Technologies at Sun.

Tim states some blunt and thought-provoking things about the web industry’s future. Some examples:

• The waterfall method is dead
• Enterprise software licensing models will die. Long live open source
• Big opportunities will appear in  technologies catering to regulation enforcement, basic needs and servicing legacy applications
• Stop trying to figure out what people want. Build something that YOU want
• Run away from venture capitalists
• Don’t be a one-trick pony. Expand to more than one progamming language or platform; don’t bash the others

There is a lot of common sense there too. But even if you don’t agree with everything, the video is definitely worth a watch.

November will be the most intense month for school. Three projects due, plus final exams. While the OpenSocial project is well on its way, the other one (literature review) is still shaky in terms of focus.

Met with a professor to have a preliminary thesis discussion - I’d like to focus on mashup ecosystems, and/or the future of the web (I know, it’s a broad topic!). They want us to start presenting our rough thesis proposals in February…so that’s what I’ll be doing over Christmas break.

I’ll be heading to the Gilbane Content Management Conference in December with some colleagues (theme: CMS meets Social Media). My first industry conference! You can be sure, I will blog and tweet about it. There will be much networking to be done. Conference essentials: Blackberry, business cards, and meet n’ greet mode turned on. I’ll also be looking out for any inside scoops!

At work, putting my newly minted business analyst skills to work while planning an upcoming onsite requirements session. The client is a large educational institution and the design is beautiful; now we need to plan the CMS build. I am pretty keen on the new processes and documents we’re implementing for this project; my teammate and I have the same mindset on almost everything. We’re like a machine. It’s great.

Otherwise, enjoying this mini-summer in November and getting strange looks when I wear summer clothes. Today I wore capris to work. Come on, it was 20 degrees and absolutely gorgeous out!

The new header contains images of Socotra Island, which has been geographically isolated from mainland Africa for 6 million years. 33% of its native species are found nowhere else on earth.

My favourite is the Dorstenia gigas, which roots directly into rock. While its upper part has pretty flowers, its lower part looks naked, bulbous and slightly obscene? More great pictures can be found here.  Enjoy!

This past month, I’ve checked out a couple of Ottawa’s social media/techie-themed meetups for the first time. I was so excited to see both events filled to capacity and such energy and friendliness. Kudos to the organizers - you’ve done a fantastic job.

Third Tuesday

Third Tuesday is a meetup group aimed at social media enthusiasts. The group meets in the evening, usually at the Clocktower Pub or more recently, Fresco Cielo. The most recent speaker, Niall Cook, talked about Enterprise 2.0 and social media within corporations and government.

What can I say - the venue was filled to capacity with an enthusiastic and engaged crowd of professionals from marketing, PR, techie, educational and governmental arenas. The talk was great, and although I wish there had been more time for Q&A, it was wrapped up early enough to allow for some networking. I had some great conversations with friendly folks from Hill & Knowlton and the NAC. Very much looking forward to the next one.

Social Media Breakfast

Social Media Breakfast (SMB) is an ongoing early-morning event where social media enthusiasts come together to share, learn, network and drink coffee. This past week I attended Ottawa’s 4th SMB with my colleague Molly. Hosted at Gowlings, the room was packed.

There was a panel of three discussing various topics centering around community. While the responses were varied and sometimes contradictory, it was interesting to see different points of view from the panel and from the audience. The world of social media and accompanying strategies is something we’re all still figuring out - there are no black and white answers.

A great re-cap of the event and discussion can be found here, courtesy of Mel Gallant. I believe the next SMB will occur in early December.

Two of my friends have taken the plunge into the startup/self-employment world (both in online advertising). They’re both brilliant, of course, and have worked incredibly hard. It’s inspiring to witness as I learn about entrepreneurial concepts in school… while they are out doing it!

Project Wonderful

First shout-out: Ryan North, CEO of Project Wonderful. Ryan is stupendously funny and started out by publishing a popular online daily dinosaur comic. Then he had a revolutionary idea for online advertising - an auction-based model where everybody wins. Advertisers bid for display time on popular sites, as opposed to paying clickthrough rates. Customers are loving the alternative, if Project Wonderful’s skyrocketing growth is any indication.

r/evolution

Second shout-out: Mark Northcott, CTO of Paymail. Paymail recently launched r/evolution, a Facebook video advertising application that coordinates a donation to charity each time a user watches a r/evolution video of their choice. The idea is to give something back to the user (and to charity) through advertising - a great conceptual mashup.

Mark has been living the “startup life” for the last eight months, working hard towards this launch. I’m  crossing my fingers for r/evolution’s success in the upcoming months.

We’re at the halfway point of the semester and things are getting INTENSE. “I have no life” is a common complaint. Time passes in a blur!

Class discussions are great, but still a battle to get a word in edgewise. The key is to interrupt and be aggressive. Don’t raise your hand…it doesn’t work that way. That said, it never gets disrespectful, although sometimes it seems to be more about saying your piece than actually listening and considering others’ thoughts.

People are already figuring out their thesis topics and supervisors, and what classes they’ll take next term. Some theses are going to be subsidized by companies directly invested in the research outcomes - so some of my classmates will be paid for their work, but will also be held under strict deadlines.

I’ve got two group projects on the go right now:

• A literature review on the differences between for-profit and non-profit business ecosystems
• A research report on the OpenSocial API and its implications

I have to say I’m really looking forward to the presentations by the other groups. Everyone seems to have picked very diverse and unique topics.

The concept of business ecosystems is fascinating, if you haven’t heard of it. A business ecosystem is a self-organizing economic community consisting of mutually beneficial organizations - customers, suppliers, competitors, stakeholders, governing bodies, etc.

Every organization exists in an ecosystem, but can gain a definite advantage by nurturing and supporting their ecosystem and incorporating it into strategic planning. Read more on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_ecosystem

I was inspired by Bryan Person’s post Are your Twitter posts only and always about you to write this quick list of my personal Twitter pet peeves. When I’m deciding whether to follow somebody, these are the things I usually look for, and try to avoid myself.

Disclaimer: We don’t all use Twitter the same way, or for the same reasons. Take lightly and salted.

1. Twitter is about networking, community, interaction. That said, be conscious of @ reply usage. If your @ replies are only meaningful to their recipient, you are diminishing value for the rest of your followers. Limit these, or explain them, or DM.
2. Twitter asks “what are you doing now?”. Don’t take this too literally. Reporting your ongoing experience at a conference is great; giving a play-by-play of your daily commute is not. Balance the volume of tweets and their “about me/not about me” ratio.
3. Make sure your Twitter bio clearly conveys who you are. If you are a web/media/marketing professional, or an artist, or a dabbler, let the Twittersphere know! Don’t make me guess who you are, or have to visit your website to find out. Your bio should be a hook.
4. Only swear very occasionally. It’s a turnoff. If you must emphasize a point, try to use asterisks and your followers will still get it.
5. And the golden rule: focus on adding value for your followers, while still letting your personality emerge. I follow people to build connections and tap into their unique insights and experiences. Make sure your tweets provide something useful or helpful.

What are your Twitter Do’s and Don’ts?